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Friday, November 26, 2010

Preview: Unreleased 'Dart Tag 20'- we got one:)

The unreleased 'Dart Tag 20'

This has been hot news over the past month, when a certain youtube clip started making the rounds of a new leaked (and unnamed) Nerf blaster. At this stage it is being referred to as the 'Nerf Dart Tag 20' blaster, mainly because the etchings on the side of the blaster say 'Nerf', 'Dart Tag' and '20':)

We go to great lengths to bring you genuine news and information on blasters as they come and we've managed to be able to score ourselves a unit to review...which we're pretty happy with. Soo.. here we go!

Side view of the '20'. interesting panel work.

Aesthetically the "Dart Tag 20" is quite the deviation from anything Nerf have produced before, so much to the point that many people have actually doubted it being genuine. If it wasn't Nerf, I'd be the first one to say Nerf has some stiff competition emerging as this blaster is AWESOME both in aesthetics and functionality; however it has some very distinct Nerf branding in the plastic molds (not stickers or other easy to fake branding) to suggest Nerf are just expanding their advancements in design and build. Given the fact this unit could very well be pre-release, it might be a little MORE obvious it's Nerf in future versions.

Dark yellow, black and grey colour schemes

The '20' shares more style and design cues with a Bumblebee style Chevy Camaro (right down to the type of yellow it uses) than any of the existing N-Strike blasters; it's much rounder and smoother, the type of plastic is more gloss and it is a dramatic yellow on black and grey. There is an obvious lack of a tactical rail(s) which is interesting as all new Nerf blasters of late seem to be featuring them, and the detachable stock is not interchangeable with any other blaster to date. It is fully battery operated and houses 6 C cell batteries in the bottom of the barrel, which gives it a distinct weight to it. Like the Stampede, the '20' cannot operate without batteries.

Bumblebee's cannon. Or 5th Element?

There are no provisions for shoulder straps so while it is technically possible for one handed operation, the weight would be rather uncomfortable on the arm very quickly (unless you have forearms like popeye). I think the designers have accepted this to be a two handed blaster, as there is a non slip grip pad on the battery door under the barrel which is a natural place to place your steadying hand.

Against the Longstrike stock. it don't fit, y'all

The detachable stock does somewhat get its cues from that of the Longstrike, however they are not interchangable; the Longstrike's stock is designed to snap in and stay there; the '20's stock is made to be easily removed. Just like with the Longstrike though, having no stock on the blaster makes it uncomfortable to hold and has the top of the grip cutting into your hand. Given the weight of the blaster as well, the detachable stock is probably a bit of a gimmick unless there plans to be different types of interchangeable stocks in the future. Which WOULD be very cool.

Down the barrels for all of you who care about ARs

The front of the blaster is a rotating barrel that can fire 20 rounds one after the other. It very quickly rotates by pressing the trigger and will fire all 20 rounds in under 5 seconds. It is similar to the Vulcan and Stampede in that there are no flywheels or obvious audible cues when switching the blaster on and that the blaster is operational; once you squeeze the trigger though the blaster roars into action and it makes the very distinct noise similar to the Stampede (but in my opinion, a tad quieter).

Semi automatic fire or single shots aren't a problem so long as you don't have a heavy trigger finger. The darts also fire from the top of the barrel, and sometimes you can get lucky on the second pass if your dart jammed the first time:) Performance-wise it's up there against the Stampede- ranges are decent and it doesn't tickle when you hit someone (the gf and I both attest to this- I shot her, she snatched it off me while I was laughing and emptied the rest of the rounds into my stomach)

The 20 in hand. It sorta looks smaller in this pic

Soo, the goods and the bads? From our perspective, it's a fantastic piece of tech; the '20' is solidly built, looks amazing and feels great to hold. As an automatic blaster is concerned, it performs as well as a Stampede, holds a fantastic 20 rounds (of any dart) and has decent ranges and accuracy. It's crazy fun.

The lack of tactical rails is a minus for me, I love customising my blasters and the fact I can't fit it with a scope (nor does it come with one) annoys me. The detachable stock is a gimmick too as I can't see a reason why you'd want to take it off. Whereas with the Stampede, you can easily have multiple clips full and ready; with the '20' you're done after you've exhausted your load..which I guess is what it's like with all of the Dart tag blasters. And how you feel about battery powered blasters.. well there's different arguments right there .

Against a Barricade RV-10. See how different the styling is?

So there you have it, you now know as much as we do on this new 'Dart Tag 20'. I'm not kidding when I think it looks so much like Bumblebee that I wouldn't be surprised if it was some form of movie tie-in.. which is kinda exciting because if there's a Bumblebee 'Dart Tag' blaster, there'll have to be a Decepticon one.. and that'd be very cool;) Or.. maybe this is just the new design for Dart Tag blasters of the future? I honestly can only speculate.

Can't tell you when they'll be available, where they'll be available, or for that matter 'IF' they'll be available. We've seen them go up on ebay so it's not like this is the only one out there, but we went to some pretty ridiculous lengths to get it just so we could get this info out to you (and m'fraid our contacts only had two, and they kept one for themselves) . Like it, don't like it, least you now know about it:)

i dont. you spoil it for everyone else. maybe Nerf had plans to do other stuff with this gun before it was finished and you go and steal one of these and publicise it and ruin it for everyone else just because you have money and steal shit.

Yes, Pocket and his team of four other Taggers infiltrated the facility in which Nerf blasters-in-development are kept and worked on. They went mostly undetected until they were cornered in a janitor's closet. All five of them. All were pressing against each other and all were drenched in sweat. Sadly there were no females.

One Tagger, dual wielding Barricades, decided he'd had enough of smelling eight other armpits. The whirring piqued the attention of the guards. Then the door bursted open.

Pocket and another Tagger escaped the fire fight. The other Tagger followed closely, cover firing with his Longstrike. They had a mission to accomplish. They had to steal the new unnamed blaster. The sounds of battle died down as they ran. Pocket's heart sank as the whirring ended with a click.

They found themselves outside the R&D centre. The doors were enormous, layer upon layer of steel. Keying in a series of stolen numbers into a nearby access panels, the doors shrieked into motion. The whole facility shook. Pocket readied his Alpha Trooper. They were coming.

Pocket and the other Tagger slipped into the R&D centre and sprinted toward the stairs up to the second floor. The other Tagger stopped and raised his Longstrike."Go get the new blaster, Pocket" he muttered, adjusting his baseball cap. "I've got this.""I can't do this alone," Pocket panted through his ironman mask. "We can fight them together after we get the new blaster.""Go, I'll hold them here. They won't be able to catch you."They could hear the footsteps of the guards from the floor below."GO!" the other Tagger yelled.

Pocket disappeared around the corner without looking back.

It resembled bumblebee's cannon as it sat in the glass case. He extended the butt of his Alpha Trooper.

The alarm sounded and all Pocket saw was red. But he didn't care. The new blaster had a great feel to it. He opened his bag and loaded it up. His attention piqued when he heard the foot steps. "Neil..." he muttered as he closed his eyes.

He tossed the bag back over his shoulder. The footsteps grew louder. He flicked the switch on the unnamed blaster and rushed.

Three Taggers were lost that day. You might find the one called Neil still lurking around Canberra somewhere... somehow. He has no memory of that mission or his whole time in Urban Taggers. It was as if it never happened.

Haha I was supposed to be studying for my damned accounting exam when I wrote that. I just got bored for about 10 mins =( Maybe you'll see something more from me later. Until then, I keep writing random little snippets of uneditted stuff =D

Anyway yeah, it looks great in the hand. I didn't think it was that big (lol if you know what I mean)

ihave always liked dart tag better than n-strike. n-strike is all about looks and not performance. the first three blasters I bought were the eliminators, crossfire, and furyfire. my first n-strike blaster was th clear raider and its already not working well after only 5 months

A toy blaster resource; from a kidult's perspective living in an Australian inner city apartment. Focusing on out- of- the- box foam dart, laser tag and water guns with the odd two player co-op game thrown in for good measure:)